Artificial Intelligence and the Sustainable Development Goals in Morocco: Mechanisms of Influence and Conditions for Transformation

Abstract: This chapter develops a context-sensitive framework explaining how artificial intelligence may contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals in Morocco. It starts from the country’s differentiated development profile, where comparatively strong performance in some Goals coexists with persistent vulnerabilities in inclusion, innovation, institutional effectiveness and food security. Artificial intelligence is approached through development-relevant capabilities related to information processing, prediction, prioritization, decision support and operational improvement. The framework identifies two complementary mechanisms: decision-oriented information quality and process optimization. Their effects are considered conditional on digital infrastructure and human and analytical competencies. The resulting model therefore combines a direct relationship, two mediated pathways and two contextual conditions. Its main contribution is to move beyond a generic technological narrative by specifying how AI-enabled capabilities may become developmentally meaningful in a Moroccan setting. The chapter offers a parsimonious conceptual architecture linking national sustainability challenges to the informational, operational, technical and human conditions of AI-enabled transformation. Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Sustainable Development Goals; Morocco; Decision-Oriented Information Quality; Process Optimization.